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Title: | Audience Receptivity and Securitization: A Cognitive Account of When Security Threat Constructions are Likely to Resonate | Authors: | KRISHNAN PRADEEP | Keywords: | securitization, audience, cognitive, attitudes, experiment | Issue Date: | 12-Aug-2021 | Citation: | KRISHNAN PRADEEP (2021-08-12). Audience Receptivity and Securitization: A Cognitive Account of When Security Threat Constructions are Likely to Resonate. ScholarBank@NUS Repository. | Abstract: | Securitization theorists argue that security threats are socially constructed, and attempt to identify the conditions under which audiences accept the arguments securitizing actors make. However, current works gloss over a key dimension. Namely, I contend that it is important to understand how the pre-existing attitudes of audiences interact with securitization attempts, as a receptive audience is necessary for securitization to succeed. This renders a cognitive perspective crucial for understanding the phenomenon. I examine two specific hypotheses. A vignette experiment was conducted to test whether securitization is more likely when audiences - a) harbour negative cognitive images of an entity; and b) perceive securitizing actors as credible - yielded positive results. To corroborate these findings, I examine the Bush administration's securitization efforts prior to the Iraq war. This thesis seeks to make a few contributions. First, although the understanding of securitization has become more intersubjectivist, I aim to advance this by demonstrating the agency of audiences. To this end, I anchor the understanding of securitization in a cognitive ontoloy, and discuss the analytical utilities of an experimental approach to its study. | URI: | https://scholarbank.nus.edu.sg/handle/10635/204914 |
Appears in Collections: | Master's Theses (Open) |
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